Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Panel hears support for involuntary rehab

Chad Sokol Murrow News Service

OLYMPIA – At the height of his battle with alcohol and drug addiction, Ricky Garcia’s trips to the emergency room were a daily occurrence. Substance abuse took a toll on his body and mind. Friends and family feared for his life.

But for nearly two years, Garcia declined long-term treatment.

“I didn’t think I was worthy of recovery,” he said.

Now two-and-a-half-years sober, Garcia, 29, wishes someone could have forced him to get help sooner. He fought back tears before a panel of state senators this week, supporting a bill that would allow doctors to involuntarily commit a person to drug rehabilitation, the same way psychiatrists can order treatment for a person with mental illness.

“Because I could not be involuntarily committed to substance abuse treatment, I nearly died,” said Garcia, who lives in Seattle and is now saving money to finish his aerospace engineering degree at the University of Washington. “I lost two years of my life to this disease.”

The proposal – called Ricky Garcia’s Act – was considered Monday in the Senate Human Services, Mental Health and Housing Committee after passing the House on a 63-35 vote. It’s one of two bills sponsored by Rep. Eileen Cody, D-Seattle, that would combine the state’s systems for treating addiction and mental illnesses.

Under the state’s Involuntary Treatment Act, someone who presents a physical threat or is “gravely disabled” by a mental illness can be detained for treatment without the person’s consent. There’s a similar system in state law for people who are incapacitated by substance abuse, but, according to the bill’s sponsors, it’s rarely used.

“It’s not used very much because there’s not much treatment available,” said Jane Beyer, of the Department of Social and Health Services.

Supporters said integrating addiction treatment into mental health care would make the system more efficient and more accessible to people with substance abuse disorders.

But Beyer warned that without money from the state, detox facilities couldn’t provide the additional psychiatric care that the bill requires.

“Unless the secure detox facilities are in place, it makes no sense to move this policy forward,” Beyer said.

The plan would cost nearly $4.2 million over the next two years, according to state estimates.

Under the proposal, doctors and nurses could petition a court for a patient’s involuntary substance abuse treatment. Petitions would have to be signed by two health care professionals.

The bill comes along with several others that could funnel more patients into the state’s mental health care system. And the Legislature faces court orders to pump more money into that system, to stop people from being turned away from care.

Currently, the state’s only provider of involuntary substance abuse treatment is Pioneer Human Services, which has 108 beds in Sedro-Woolley and 35 beds in Spokane.

Nick Federici, a lobbyist for Pioneer, said about 900 people die of drug overdose in Washington each year.

“The sooner we can act on this, the sooner we can start bringing that number down,” Federici said.

From 2011 to 2012, Garcia was admitted to an emergency room, intensive care unit or psychiatric hospital more than 80 times, his friend Lauren Davis told the committee. Doctors couldn’t keep him in treatment against his will.

“It was during that time that I learned a harrowing truth about our state’s behavioral health system,” said Davis, who now serves on the King County Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Administrative Board. “If your loved one is at risk of serious harm or gravely disabled by addiction, nothing can be done.”

Each time Garcia left the hospital, doctors gave him a list of treatment centers to contact, but each one had a weekslong waiting list, he said. Although he eventually agreed to get treatment for himself, he said there needs to be a faster way to combat drug addiction.

“It’s critically important because it saves lives,” he said. “It would have allowed me to get better quicker.”